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Monday 24 July 2023

A precious extra second



Pedestrians to have extra second at green man to cross road

New recommendations will give people 7.3 seconds at a green man crossing to allow elderly and disabled people to use the road safely.

Walkers have 6.1 seconds to cross a normal road at a walking speed of 1.2 metres per second, according to current Department for Transport guidelines.

New recommendations by government agency Active Travel England (ATE), which is part of the Department of Transport, will allow 7.3 seconds to cross a road at one metre per second.


The most interesting part of this story is that we have a government agency called Active Travel England. We came across it indirectly via Granddaughter's recent Bikeability training at school. It's not a small agency either, not if this section from the website is any guide.


By making everyday journeys simple, easy and fun, Active Travel England is working to give people the choice to leave their car at home. We’ll do this by working alongside councils to:
  • give people an alternative to driving by delivering new, protected routes and junctions, and quieter roads and neighbourhoods
  • put active travel at the heart of towns and cities, including ensuring that £3.2 billion of government investment on active travel delivers to new high national standards
  • embed active travel into 1,000 major new developments, reducing local congestion

5 comments:

Doonhamer said...

We need another Gubment Agency to regulate the width of roads. Obviously if a road is wider than 7.3 metres then the crossing time needs to be increased. By 0.1 second for every extra 4 inches approximately.
Not only that. Many pedestrians will not reach the full walking speed immediately so an acceleration time needs to be added.
Then to get rid of the hesitation time - "has that green light really come on? Will it become even greener?" there should be a count down of some kind.
No doubt such an agency will expand on this basic requirement.
Then University / ex Polytechnics given enough funding could provide degree courses in the racial and gender implications of Green Man crossings.

dearieme said...

Some silly sods could do with learning that it's quicker to cross the road at right angles to the pavement rather than walking a leisurely diagonal route.

A K Haart said...

Doonhamer - hesitation time must be significant on many crossings because the loons make it difficult to see the traffic lights and anticipate the green man finally coming on.

dearieme - or a leisurely diagonal route through the traffic even though the crossing is only ten yards away.

Bucko said...

Going from their agenda, I'd say the extra time on crossings is not to help people cross better, but to make cars wait longer

A K Haart said...

Bucko - and longer, and longer... The first step.